Too Close for Comfort
by LostinStereo55
Summary: Set after series five. The Temple home is pulled into chaos when work spills into the house.
1. Chapter 1 - Off to work

Connor sat at the kitchen table absent-mindedly stroking his wedding ring whilst reading the Sunday newspaper. He glanced up at the clock: 10:15. He'd give Abby another fifteen minutes; the baby had been putting a lot of strain on her at the moment. He stood up and walked over to the cupboard and took two mugs from the middle shelf followed by some sugar from the bottom then flicked on the kettle. His mind wandered to the thought of the baby. Would they ever have a quiet morning like this again? His train of thought was interrupted by the sound of footsteps on the stairs.

'Morning, beautiful.' He said softly. Abby mumbled in reply. He raised a mug. 'Tea?' Another mumble and a nod. He set to work making the tea while Abby manoeuvred herself around the table and into a chair. The events of the last eight months showed; she looked constantly tired and she struggled to walk at times with the weight of the baby bending her slender frame. Connor placed a mug of tea in front of her and kissed her forehead. She smiled and leant her head against his chest.

'I'm sorry, Con, I'm just tired that's all.'

'Hey,' He said cupping her face in his hands. 'You don't have to apologize or anything; you're the most amazing person I know. You're smarter than Philip, you're stronger than Becker and I love you more than you could ever imagine.' He stroked her cheek with his thumb and kissed her lips before once again pulling her close to his chest.

After finishing their tea Connor left Abby in the lounge with a book before heading upstairs to get ready for work. He searched through the chest of drawers in the bedroom for a shirt and some trousers. After three drawers of baby clothes he found them and checked his watch 'Great, now you're gonna be late.' He remembered the shower head he was supposed to fix last night. 'Late and smelly.' He'd get a shower at the ARC. 'I'll be back around half 5, sweetheart!' He called as he ran down the stairs, snatched up his keys from the sideboard and left the house.

As she heard the door close Abby looked up from her book. Uncertainty gnawed at her for some unknown reason. She pulled herself to her feet and walked through to the hallway where she was met by a sight that terrified her: a familiar flickering glow illuminated her face.


	2. Chapter 2 - Anomaly Alert

**I know the last chapter was a bit short, sorry about that. Hopefully the rest will be a bit longer. I'll try to update fairly regularly but organisation is definitely not my strong point :P Enjoy!**

Connor ran into the operations room still holding his bag and almost collided with Lester. 'It seems that despite your apparent genius it is beyond your skills to set an alarm clock, Connor. You were told to be here at midday it's not that early a start. You're lucky; there's been no alert yet.' Lester said with his usual tone of sarcasm. He then added a little more gently: 'How is Abby?'

'She's fine, just a bit tired.' Connor said quietly. 'I need a shower, I'll back in two minutes.' He began to walk towards the gym.

'You're right,' said Lester. 'Lateness I can handle but sweaty staff is not something I'm prepared to deal with. We would want to offend the dinosaurs would we?' Despite himself Lester was relieved to see that Connor and Abby were alright. He knew the trauma and uncertainty of the first child all too well and couldn't help thinking that they were very young to be juggling work and a child.

Connor returned to the ops room a little while later to talk to Jess about the system update he had planned for the ARC. 'I think we should be a little more lenient with the security to avoid another problem with the lockdown procedures. Perhaps we should allow more staff to disable lockdown or take down some of the firewalls so it's easier to work around them if we have an issue.' Jess nodded in agreement but suggested keeping things a little more airtight. Their discussion was cut short by a call from Matt for them to help carry in the new shipment of EMDs. After going back to his time he had been debriefed and told that he had succeeded in his mission to prevent the electromagnetic apocalypse that would have been brought about by Philip's machine. After discussions with the government he had been allowed to return to the time that he had come to love to be with Emily and the ARC team. They carried the containers through to the armoury and were just about to leave when Matt stopped them.

'After the convergence I decided to add a new weapon the range of EMDs to help us cope if incursions of that scale ever happen again.' He reached into the largest box and pulled out what looked like an RPG. 'Say hello to the new addition; the highest setting on this EMD could, if needed, take down a _Brachiosaurus. _The lowest is designed for something about the size of the_ Kaprosuchus_. I'm working on designs for a new toy for Becker,' He looked at Becker with mischievous smile. 'An EMD tank. However, Becker, you'll have to wait a while because it's only in its earliest stages as yet and we'll only use when we _absolutely_ need it.' Becker's face lit up with excitement as he pictured an EMD blast with enough power to take out a nest of Future Burrowers.

Suddenly the Anomaly Detector Alarm sounded and the team rushed to the ops room. Jess took her seat and brought up the map. '34 Berners Street. 16.8 miles heading 264. ETA 14 minutes.' She paused. 'Hang on. That's you're street, Connor!' He was already gone.

'Never mind the street, Jess that's his house!' Becker said grabbing a third black box from the desk and tossing it Matt. He stuck a fourth to his belt for Connor and the team ran from the room.

They caught up with Connor as he was climbing into a truck. He was frantic, his mind reeling with thoughts of what may have happened to Abby by the time they got there. He was just getting into the seat when Becker pushed him into the passenger seat. 'Wouldn't want you doing anything reckless.' He explained levelly as he turned the key in the ignition. 'There may not even be an incursion, we have to stay calm.' There was no reply. Connor simply sat silently with a tear lingering in the corner of his eye threatening to fall at any moment.

Connor was at the door before Becker had even stopped the truck. He fumbled as his fingers found the bunch of keys in his pocket and his hands shook as he tried to guide the correct key into the lock. The door swung open and he sprinted into the house, his head jerking from side to side searching desperately for any sign of his wife. 'Abby!_ Abby!_' His cries remained unanswered as he ducked around the anomaly and went to search upstairs.

Becker appeared in the doorway followed by Matt and Emily and the three of them each searched a room. Moments later Emily called the rest of the team into the lounge. When Connor peered into the room the colour drained from his face at what he saw. Blood. A patch of it the size of his outstretched hand stood out against the beige carpet behind the sofa. He stumbled back out of the room and dropped onto the bottom stair with his head in his hands. His fingers slid into his hair and he curled his hands into fists gripping the locks of hair as if ready to pull them out. He let out a sob of despair. Out of the corner of his eye he saw a few drops of blood on the floor next to the anomaly. In his mind he saw horrible images of Abby's lifeless body being dragged through the anomaly by a faceless prehistoric beast. He shook his head to rid himself of the horror inside and noticed Becker with Anomaly Dating Calculator. It beeped rapidly then stopped.

'Early cretaceous era.' He announced.

'I found a tooth in the lounge,' said Matt, 'from that period we're probably looking at some kind of dromaeosaurid.'

'Utahraptor?'

'Yeah, I think so.'

Emily emerged from the kitchen. 'Surely that wouldn't be big enough to… you know…' She fell silent.

'Utahraptor hunted in packs,' Matt spoke quietly so as not to upset Connor but he too was panicking inside, 'They could easily take down something the size of a buffalo. Abby wouldn't stand a-'

Becker gave him a look that silenced him not out of intimidation but the unspoken, universal need for quiet. The following three minutes passed soundlessly as the four people tried to compose themselves before proceeding. It was Becker who broke the silence. 'I'm going through. I'm going to find her.'


	3. Chapter 3 - Ready for Rescue

**Thanks for the reviews guys they've been really helpful. I've had some suggestions of what to add and where possible I'll make those changes. Thanks again and I hope you enjoy this chapter XD**

The rest of the team looked at Becker in utter disbelief. He, the man who always stuck to the rules and never allowed missions through anomalies was the last person they'd expected to volunteer. However they knew he was very close to Abby; she reminded him of his sister, Alice, who had died after being diagnosed with leukaemia when she was fifteen.

'Becker…' Matt began.

'No, I don't care about the rules. This is Abby we're talking about! What about the baby? We can't just leave them.'

Connor rose to his feet. His face had been wiped of all expression by terror. 'I'm going too. They're my family.'

'You're in no fit state to be going anywhere, mate. You'll get reckless and you're no use to Abby and the baby dead.' Said Matt firmly. 'Becker will go with his team to find her. You'll help Evan in the menagerie.'

Connor exploded with frustration. 'I'm not going to stay in a lab washing a mammoth while my wife is lost in some pre-historic forest!'

Emily put a hand on his shoulder and guided him to the kitchen where she spoke softly to him. Becker and Matt looked at each other. Becker himself had only recently married. He and Jess had been together openly since the Convergence and had tied the knot six months later. He had promised Jess that he would stay as safe as possible. How would she cope if he didn't come back? He was the only one who could coax her out of her nightmares when the predators came for her while she slept. 'Look after Jess.' He said quietly and left to assemble his team.

Connor and Emily returned a few moments later and it seemed she had talked him round. His eyes were red and damp; hers were gentle and focused on him and her hands were poised on his shoulder and in front of his abdomen ready to catch him if he fell. His eyes were fixed on the floor but he spoke to Matt almost calmly. 'Fine. But I want her back, whatever… condition… she's in.' His voice broke off into a sob and Emily rubbed his upper arm gently. Matt replied with a nod and a pat on the shoulder. Emily guided Connor to the truck where one of Becker's men was waiting to take them back to the ARC while Matt stayed behind to wait for the rescue team.

Upon arrival Connor went to meet Evan in menagerie. Evan was small young man with big blue eyes and mousy hair. He was softly spoken and kind and the only person other than Abby and Connor that Rex knew and trusted. When Abby left on maternity leave Evan had been an obvious choice to stand in for her. One of Becker's men, Zachary, had fallen for his beautiful blue eyes from day one and was no good at concealing it. As Connor entered the lab Evan was trying to feed Sid and Nancy who were having none of it. They butted the bowl repeatedly, covering Evan and the floor in cabbage leaves and carrot. 'Aaargh! Get off!' Evan cried but he was laughing all the same. Soon all three of them were rolling in a pile of salad in a play fight. Evan finally pushed the little dinosaurs off his chest and sat up with tears of laughter rolling down his cheeks. His eyes met Connor and the smile disappeared from his face. He rose to his feet and flicked a piece of lettuce from his shoulder. 'I'm sorry, mate. Nothing's certain yet.'

'I'd rather not talk about it, Evan.' Connor saw the guilty look on his face and forced a grateful smile. He set to work preparing the food for the Dracorex and tried to keep his mind away from Abby but thoughts of her crept in despite his efforts. It was going to be a long, stressful day.

Meanwhile Becker was back at the house briefing his rescue team. 'I know you're all worried about Abby and I am too but we need to keep focused.' He said firmly. 'Everyone has a walkie-talkie with a signal radius of one hundred metres so stay within seventy five just in case. Send out a message if you find anything useful. No-one is to challenge a creature alone, call for backup if you run into anything.'

'Sir, are we using EMDs or live rounds?' Logan Phillips asked.

'EMDs but each of you will take a handgun in case you need it but do not use it if Abby is anywhere near.'

'Yes, sir.'

'Anyone who strays outside of contact range is on their own, do you understand?' That prompted a synchronised 'Yes, sir' from the team. 'We are her only hope; a pregnant woman, even Abby, will not survive long in the cretaceous on her own so we'll spread out in a line with one man every fifty metres to search for any sign of her.'

'Stay safe.' Nobody had noticed Matt entering the room but suddenly he was stood in the corner behind Becker. Becker nodded and sent the men to pick up their supplies. He picked up his own and prepared to set off he hugged Emily and said goodbye to Matt before meeting his men in the hallway. They grouped together in front of the anomaly and checked their gear. Becker was the first to step through the anomaly.


End file.
